10 Sep 2010 11:00

MICEX Stock Exchange opens Fri with losses, down 0.2% in first minute

MOSCOW. Sept 10 (Interfax) - Trading on the MICEX Stock Exchange opened Friday with losses on blue chips as investors preferred to take profits after market growth on Thursday. The MICEX Stock Exchange went down by 0.2% in the first minute of trades.

By 10:31 pm Moscow time, the MICEX had decreased by 0.18% to 1,434.86 points while the RTS decreased by 0.35% to 1,486.74. The majority of benchmark stocks decreased within 0.5%.

Decliners on the MICEX in the first 30 minutes of trades included VTB , down 0.3%, Gazprom - 0.1%, MMC Norilsk Nickel - 0.1%, Lukoil - 0.2%, Rosneft - 0.3%, Sberbank - 0.4%, Surgutneftegas - 0.4% and Tatneft - 0.1%.

The main advancer was Rostelecom , up 1.1% despite news of changes in its parent holding (Svyazinvest) would be having a leadership change. In addition, Polyus Gold went up by 0.6%.

News that Svyazinvest chief Yevgeny Yurchenko had filed for retirement has had a generally negative impact on the quotations for regional telecoms: Dalsvyaz went down by 0.1%, North-West Telecom - 1.5%, VolgaTelecom - 0.7% and Uralsvyazinform - 0.4%.